The support the Churches gave the New Zealand war effort in the First World War was extensive both at home and abroad.  In the minds of a people for whom their civilisation and Christianity were almost synonymous, there was very little thought that the war against the Germans was anything other than a moral fight for what was right.  “God was on their side and they could expect victory”.[1]  With this attitude, what else could one do but throw himself wholeheartedly behind New Zealand’s war effort?

The Churches’ support took two main forms - recruiting and supporting from home and ministering at the front.  Clergy used their pulpits to persuade young men of the necessity of the war and taking part in it.[2]  Uncritically, most ministers of the major Christian denominations repeated the rhetoric of the state.  James Gibb, the foremost Presbyterian minister in New Zealand at the time, later made the regretful comment that he was “as good as a recruiting agent during the War”,[3] and all the mainstream churches released statements affirming Britain’s declaration of war and the sending of troops by New Zealand’s government.[4]  Sermons about sacrifice and “Christian duty” were delivered, laced with strong denunciations of those who did not answer the call.[5]  So passionate was the belief that this was a godly cause that theology began to blur, and heaven began to take on the appearance of being an open door to all who died fighting.[6]  Speaking of his own experience as a young man with strong Christian beliefs at the time the war broke out, Ormond Burton commented that, “[t]he very fact that we were Christians made it imperative to volunteer.”[7]

There was more to do to support the war effort than recruiting, of course.  The necessary deaths left devastated families to comfort,[8] institutes were built at military camps in New Zealand, writing and reading material were supplied - including Bibles and Prayer books for soldiers leaving for the war - as were chaplains, who were to counsel soldiers home and abroad.  Finance was also sent overseas to help New Zealand soldiers in other lands.[9]

War rhetoric was sustained until the fighting ended in 1918, though as deaths increased and news of what war was really like filtered back home[10] the mood became somewhat more sombre.  Ormond Burton comments that he himself held onto his “illusion that the war was being fought for ideal ends” until Lloyd George coming to power and the Treaty of Versailles failed to deliver those ideals.[11]  Many people were never disabused of the rightness of the cause, as reflected by the attitude of non-tolerance toward religious and secular conscientious objectors during the Second World War.[12]

There were those, religious and secular, who also objected to the First World War at the time.  Within the church, a Presbyterian Minister, Rutherford Waddell, objected to the war from the beginning, as did smaller groups such as the Brethren, Seventh Day Adventists and the Society of Friends,[13] who were granted exemption from conscription when it was imposed at the end of 1916.[14]

The introduction of conscription disquieted some within the church, and as thewar continued, more voices could be heard calling for fairer treatment for those who genuinely objected to the war,[15] yet the majority of those within the church supported the measure, and showed hostility to those who did not agree.[16]  This was evident when the church abandoned the Maori of Taranaki, Waikato and the King Country who opposed conscription.  When these Maori realised they had been abandoned by the church, they responded by reinstituting “Tawhiao’s old religion”.[17]

The war effort was also supported by the presence of people from the churches of New Zealand.  There were over 130 chaplains from different denominations who accompanied the soldiers to their stations,[18] and welfare workers from many different religious (and patriotic) groups, the main one being the officially sanctioned YMCA which utilised lay church leaders.  Most of these men were disqualified from serving in the military becuase they were medically unfit or too old.[19]

According to Ria Keenan the chaplains concerns were these: “raising and boosting morale, enforcing discipline, to reinforce the message of the army and interpreting and explaining death.”[20]

In terms of morale, Burton, despite his severe criticism of the chaplain’s role and actions during the war, provides examples of chaplains who were successful in keeping morale high at the front.

“During those days Padre Taylor was a great source of inspiration…He buried the dead, comforted the sick, passed the ready jest along the trenches.”[21]

Morale was also a concern away from the frontlines, and chaplains were the one who delivered letters and counselled soldiers over death, drink and problems from home.[22]  Many of the chaplains worked with the YMCA providing evening games and concerts.  That this was done to boost morale is true, but it was also done in the hope of distracting men from less wholesome pursuits such as drinking and visiting brothels.[23]  Burton speaks of the NZ YMCA becoming the centre of “the social, intellectual and religious life of the Division” - at least in France where he was stationed.[24]

Chaplains also contributed to morale and discipline through sermons at church parades (church services held while soldiers stood on the parade ground).  They espoused the same message their counterparts at home espoused - the war was a just one and God would reward the sacrifice and trouble now suffered.  While some soldiers believed those words,[25] Archibald Baxter tells of the reactions of soldiers around him during one such address which indicate little faith in what the chaplain had to say.[26]  In this way the church still continued to support the war rhetoric almost completely uncritically.

The YMCA was not officially part of the Army, so while they participated in church parades, they were better known for “short prayer meetings and informal singing on Sundays adn some weeknights which any soldier was welcome to attend - or not.”  Lectures about a variety of secular and religious subjects were also provided either before or after these meetings.[27]

Interpreting and explaining death took some chaplains to the front to gather and bury the dead, even in the midst of fighting.  Burton speaks again of Padre Gavin in this context:

“The purity and earnestness of this quiet, selfless man had won for him a place in the hearts of all.  He buried the dead, British and German, in the same grave, often dug with his own hands.  No matter how heavy the shelling he stood by the graveside with bared head and repeated his service…”[28]

J.B. Haigh provides other examples in his Men of Faith and Courage.  The official history of New Zealand’s War Chaplains.[29]

While the YMCA was received positively by the troops, chaplains were often criticised.  The compulsory church parades were resented, as was the fact that chaplains automatically received and self-consciously identified with officer status.[30]  Ormond Burton recounted examples of bravery among chaplains and spoke of men who served effectively as chaplains, but as a whole he was very negative about the churches’ role in the war.  He accused the churches of mental and moral cowardice in their refusal to separate themselves from war rhetoric and the interests of the army.[31]  Archibald Baxter, himself not a member of the church, asked the question:

“Was there a parson at the Front who dared to preach: ‘Thou shalt not kill’, that all men are brothers and God the father of all, irrespective of race, creed or colour, and all things being so, the combatants on both sides should fraternize with the enemy?”[32]

The reality of the situation was that the influence New Zealand churches liked to think they had on their society was due largely to social boundaries rather than people’s implicit respect for the church - and those social boundaries were fairly weak compared to other Commonwealth countries.[33]  Once outside the societal restrictions in New Zealand, the churches acted as though their societal influence should continue as a matter of course.  Upholding the interests of the military was, consciously or not, a matter of self-preservation, since the military was upholding the civilisation which ensured their influence.  Showing the love the church preached about and exemplifying the sacrifice they urged on others was secondary, though when practiced by individual chaplains proved to have far more impact on troops than any official rhetoric.  After speaking about Padre Gavin, Burton then goes on to comment:

“If one asks those men to-day about Padre Gavin they will probably first declare with oaths that they themselves are not religious, but - this with a certain enthusiasm - that religion of the type of the padre’s they reverence.”[34]

The churches’ war policies had more to do with issues from home that had no relevance on the battlefield.  Church hierarchies sent their politics to the front, ensuring that separate church parades were given for Catholic, Anglican and ‘other churches’, and that three chaplains were available for the Catholics, Anglicans and ‘others churches’ among the troops.

Haigh gives an example of church politics when he explains that there had been no Senior Chaplain-in-Charge for the New Zealand forces until July 1916.  At that time, a Methodist chaplain, John Aldred Luxford, was appointed Senior Chaplain, without the approval of the Anglicans, Catholics and (presumably) Presbyterians.  As a result of the ensuing protests,  (from church hierarchy) Luxford was stepped down and a board of Senior Chaplains was set up instead to cater for the varying denominations.  Such divisions impeded the effectiveness of the church - whether in terms of influence among the soldiers for the military[36] or for their own purposes[37] - and did nothing to address the far more pressing concerns of the soldiers at the front.

In practice such church divisions were not adhered to at all strictly among chaplains,[38] yet still “the influence of the chaplains, taken as a whole, was exceedingly small.”[39]  Burton further lamented about the quality of the chaplains, saying:

“As a rule chaplains were men whose moral conduct was unimpeachable, but who were not distinguished about ordinary men for courage and self-sacrifice…from the followers of the One Crucified, whose primary business, according to their creed, was ‘to lay down their lives for the sheep,’ it was perfectly justifiable to expect much more than mediocrity.”[40]

[Unfinished]

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